Revasthoro
General information Revasthoro is a logic-based language created to showcase a never-before-seen grammatical structure. This stucture is based purely in simplicity, elegance, and ease of speech. Because it is based in logic instead of linguistics, when attempting to learn, please let go of all previous knowledge of languages and start anew. SInce all parts of the language have been made to fit this structure even the vocabulary will be difficult to fully grasp unless you forget everything you know about how words interact with each other. Other that this small warning, enjoy yourself. This language is very original and I hope it renews or reinforces your love of language as well as gives you a new way to look at languages. Good luck and if you get caught, I would advise trying to further remove yourself from anything not in this text. Be a child, embrace your inner curiosity and creativity. to you Phonology Every language needs some type of method of communication by which people can pass ideas, descriptions, etc. The easiest of these methods is writing and speaking. So to start, we need to establish the most basic unit in both of these methods, sounds and their equivalents letters. Being based on logic, what are we looking for in our most basic units. Well, we are looking for simplicity and constructability. We want sounds that are simple to speak, we want letters that are easy to write and differentiate between, both the script and the phonology should follow a simple system, and we want both the sounds and letters to be simple to combine for word formation. Unlike many other languages including the one you are reading right now have many letters that can represent multiple sounds and combinations that change pronunciation, making spelling and word formation much more difficult than necessary. To avoid this, we will make a system in which the sounds a letter represents never change. If you see a letter, it is pronounced exactly as it would be no matter where it is found. So when going through the phonology, pay close attention to what sound each letter makes and refer back to the correct pronunciation often to avoid mispronouncing words. Consonants All consonants are grouped by place of articulation and closure. Place of articulation simply means where the sound is created. For all serious linguists, I know that I am not using the official names and I know that not all of be grouped together under the generic chart. For non-linguists, just know that "back" consonants are produced near the back of the mouth, "middle" consonants are produced in the middle of the mouth, "dental" consonants are produced using the teeth, and "front" consonants are made using the lips. Again don't take this too seriously, it isn't an exact place of sound creation but just a region of articulation used to group some similar sounds. Closure is just defined as how much the airflow is restricted when making the designated sound. Closed consonants simply means that the airflow is stopped (basically you can't make these sounds for very long). Open consonants are the opposite, these sounds are much less restricted (basically you can make these sounds until you run out of breath). Semi-vowels are much like "open" consonants except they are more similar to vowels and most can be found in the sounds of a vowel or diphthong. And vowels are sounds with unrestricted airflow (that's what a vowel is). Don't read to much into this stuff it's just a way of grouping sounds. All consonants are found in this grid in the order: unvoiced - voiced - (nasal). Voiced vs. unvoiced is like the difference between humming and whispering and nasal consonants include airflow through the nose as well as the mouth. Ex. "f" is unvoiced because the vocal cords are not vibrating (it sounds like whispering) - "v" is created in the same place and is also "open" but it is voiced and thus the vocal cords are vibrating (sounds like humming) - and "m" is also created in the same region and is also open but there is airflow through the nose so it is nasal. Vowels Vowels are also grouped by place of articulation and closure. They are classified either front middle or back for place of articulation. Just like consontants, the "back" vowels are created in the back of the mouth, "middle" in the middle, and "front in the front. A vowel can either be open or closed as far as closure. This is just the difference whether the sound ends in a "y" or "w" sound or an "h" sound. If you pronounce a "open" vowel and trail off continuing the sound it will stop being the vowel and start being the "y" or "w" semivowel. Try pronouncing the "i" sound, say the word "eek!" If you prolong the first phoneme in this word all you are really doing is pronouncing "y" and holding it. The "o" and "u" sounds trail off into a "w" sound. Likewise, all closed vowels trail off into an "h" for example, the "a" in father trails of into a long "h" sound. Note that closed vowels are not like closed consonants which cannot be pronounced for extented periods of time it is just a classification. The following chart shows the vowels in their respective categories. Semivowels: Semivowels are not quite consonants not quite vowels but as the name suggests they can act as both. Most people don't know that "l" and "r" can actually act as a vowel. An example would be the word "bubble" no one actually says bubble with a true vowel in the last syllable -bubb''u''l- we all say -bubb''l''- the vowel is the "l" Alphabet Phonotactics Grammar Vocabulary Example text